Exhibition archive

2023_mdd_pressemappe_die_roehre_1.jpg

The Tube. An Architecture for Conceivable Times

15.09.2023 to 05.11.2023
On September 14, 2023, the last special exhibition in the Kreuzberg museum spaces will open: "The Tube. An Architecture for Conceivable Times." In the early 1980s, architect and member of the "Werkbund" Günther L. Eckert developed an architectural utopia: a huge tube spanning the globe, that would provide a living space for all of humanity.
Story of my Life Titelbild

The Story of My Life. Object Biography as Concept, Method and Genre

19.01.2023 to 04.09.2023
Duration: 19 January 2023 - 04 September 2023 Can things recount their own biographies? The exhibition looks at the concept of the object biography, reconstructing its origins, and asks what the life of a thing might be and how we might conceive our perceptions of things – their biographies.
ordnungsphasen12.jpeg

ORGANIZING THINGS

19.05.2022 to 02.01.2023
Duration: 19 May - 31 October (extended until 02 January 2023) Order is a fundamental aspect of every museum: the ordering of things, the ordering of knowledge about humanity and the world. Our next exhibition takes a closer look at precisely these systems. Taking a closer look at these ordering devices can help us detect unconscious assumptions and blind spots, especially in museum work.
Sammlungsobjekt Badekappe, schwarz mit weißen Kreisen mit vielen kleinen Armen

Crisis Gallery

01.01.2022 to 31.12.2024
Click through some examples of our crisis collection in the gallery.
Plakat "Erotik der Dinge". Gestaltung: Rose Epple

The Eroticism of Things. Collections on the History of Sexuality

02.05.2018 to 01.10.2018
Even before Freud, people were attributing erotic qualities to things. The exhibition traces the material and immaterial production of eroticism. Shape and color, purpose and use, implicit allusions and explicit renderings all make things the stuff of erotic fantasies, while also making them eloquent documents for a cultural history of sexuality.
Flyer FOTO | ALBUM Vorderseite, Gestaltung: Rose Epple

FOTO | ALBUM

20.10.2017 to 09.04.2018
Extended until April 9! Private and Anonymous Photography from the Collection of Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge.
Flyer 'Kabinett des Unbekannten', Gestaltung: Mischen

Cabinet of the Unknown

27.07.2017 to 02.10.2017
Thursday, 27. July 2017 to Monday, 2. October 2017 Cabinet of the Unknown is a project that pursues the goal to connect the known to the unknown. Taking its title as a cue from Cabinet d’Ignorance of Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon in Dresden, Cabinet of the Unknown invites its collaborators from Oranienstr. to work on objects that cannot be taxonomified and defined at Museum der Dinge. The objects and the discussions discovered and remained undiscovered will compose the exhibition that will take place in July–September 2017.
Flyer zu gern modern? Wohnkonzepte für Berlin nach 1945, Gestaltung: Rose Epple

gern modern? Living Concepts for Berlin after 1945

09.02.2017 to 26.06.2017
Duration: February 10 - June 26, 2017 Berlin after 1945: "How will we live?" was the question of the hour. The exhibition project 'gern modern?' explores ideas for actual and idealized concepts of home that were developed by German Werkbund members in the war-ravaged city and asks about the issue's timeliness and significance for the present.
Flyer Vorderseite Object Lessons

Object Lessons. The Story of Material Education in 8 Chapters

16.09.2016 to 16.01.2017
Today, knowledge about materials, their origins and processing is valued and desired more than ever before. At the same time, such knowledge is specialized, concealed and the domain of experts. How can it become available to everyone?
Schiff, Selbstau, Exponat der Sonderausstellung "Cucula - Refugees Company for Crafts and Design"

CUCULA – Refugees Company for Crafts and Design

20.03.2015 to 06.04.2015
Five young men – refugees from West African countries – produce high quality design objects in a Kreuzberg design manufacture: they are committed to build a basis for their future.
Plakat der Sonderausstellung "Made in Germany"

Made in Germany – Politics through Things. The German Werkbund in 1914

25.09.2014
On the eve of the First World War, the industrial design association Deutscher Werkbund, founded by artists and industrialists in 1907, launched a mobilization of things: the functional, standardized and materially sensible design of everyday products would make the label "Made in Germany", required by British import law, rise above its original status as a mark of ostensibly poor quality. On the contrary, "Made in Germany" would be transformed into a seal of quality, raising the export power of the German Empire.
Exponat der Sonderausstellung "Standby - Leben mit Geräten" im Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

STANDBY – On Living with Machines

23.05.2014 to 09.06.2014
A machine could be more than just a technical box, as shown now in the exhibition called “Standby” in the Museum of Things in Kreuzberg. The Institut for Formforschung, a cooperation of the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences / Department of Design and the Museum of Things, takes a closer look at machines in our daily lives.
Stuhl "Same Same" von Laura Jungmann, gezeigt in der Sonderausstellung "Transformationen" des Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

Transformations – Concepts of Re-using Things

27.03.2014 to 19.05.2014
Recycling, re-use, longer use, material recovery, conversion to new purposes: the use of household and industrial waste in product design often creates not only new resources in the economic sense, but also new values in the ideal and personal sphere.
Teeglas aus der Sammlung Fuat Ozgen, Sonderausstellung Inci Belli im Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge, Foto Koray Ozgen

Ince belli / Slim Waist

21.03.2014 to 19.05.2014
Author’s cabinet Koray Ozgen (with Fuat Ozgen’s tea glass collection) Fuat Ozgen collects objects and ephemera. A conversation with his designer brother Koray Ozgen initiated his passion for slim waisted (ince belli) tea glasses. In the following years this led to a considerable collection of these vessels mostly used in Anatolia since early 20th Century.
Blick in die Sonderausstellung "3 x Sammeln" im Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

3 x Collection – Design-Historical, Culturally Significant, Aesthetic

12.04.2013 to 03.06.2013
Since 2007 the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge’s “open depot” standing exhibition has been pushing new levels of debate on the topic of collection in the public sphere. In the new exhibition series, “Collections Show…” we turn our attention to privately curated collections, comparing and contrasting their particular focuses and methods of organization.
Ausstellung "Im Inneren der Apparate", Werke von Matias Bechtold, Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge, Foto Jürgen Baumann

The Interior of Devices

17.11.2012 to 04.03.2013
Matias Bechtold places a focus in his artistic works on the special traits of technical casings by reinterpreting the interior of a device as living space. Where a normal user may view the interior of a device as determined by the function of the device itself, Matias Bechtold presents the extracted section as a different world.
Blick in die Sonderausstellung "Istanbul Alphabet - von çokçok bis zikzak" im Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

ISTANBUL ALPHABET from çokçok to zikzak

17.02.2012 to 09.04.2012
çokçok is a Turkish expression that means "an insatiable hunger for more". The exhibition ISTANBUL ALPHABET – from çokçok to zikzak partakes of the special quality of the Museum der Dinge: the exploration of the culture of everyday objects.
Sonderausstellung "Museumsbauhütte" im Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

Museumsbauhütte II

11.11.2011 to 30.01.2012
"Museumsbauhütte" is a pragmatic and epistemological workshop, where scientific, artistic and technological knowledge is being integrated.

WOW – about the blinding by things

01.06.2011 to 11.06.2011
In the guest project WOW students of design at the Fachhochschule Potsdam present the results of their detailed research about the subject of "blinding". They try to visualise the different "blinding qualities" and show various aspects of product culture: things that were primarily created to impress others, to show off or to deceive.
Zwei Fotos, eine Broschüre und ein Briefumschlag betreffend Herbert Hirche aus der Dokumente-Sammlung

brilliant grey – herbert hirche's centenary

21.05.2010 to 25.10.2010
The Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge exhibits the estate of the Bauhaus disciple and Werkbund adherent Herbert Hirche. The exhibition focuses on the specific situation of post-war Germany, in which an ethics of things was proposed as a contribution to material and intellectual reconstruction.
Meerschweinchen, Exponat der Sonderausstellung "Böse Dinge" im Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

Evil Things – An Encyclopedia of Bad Taste

16.07.2009 to 11.01.2010
The exhibition "Evil things – an encyclopedia of bad taste" uses a one hundred year-old system to categorise violations of taste, where things are not just submitted to a judgement of taste, but also to ethical valuation of their production, construction and appearance.
Moleskine Detour Sonderausstellung im Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

Detour – The Moleskine Notebook Experience

30.10.2008 to 16.11.2008
Detour is a travelling group show featuring the Moleskine notebooks designed by internationally recognized artists, architects, film directors, graphic designers, illustrators and writers.
Exponate der Sonderausstellung "Mobilien" im Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

Movables – 1000 pieces of furniture on 80 squaremeters

04.07.2008 to 10.11.2008
Apart from the permanent collection the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge shows a new installation focusing on furniture as a museum object beyond the usual attribution to a designer or a stylistic context. This new presentation questions the relationship between movables and space.
Eingangsinstallation der Ausstellung "Kampf der Dinge" des Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge

Battle of Things

30.06.2007 to 15.05.2008
The Werkbund Archive – Museum of Things takes the occasion of the 100-year anniversary of the German Werkbund (German Work Federation) to throw a critical eye on the history of the development and reception of this reform movement, and to review the objectives of the Werkbund with regard to their future usefulness in the light of current product culture.